Despite a last-minute public relations blitz by the mayor and the police chief, the Los Angeles City Council voted Monday to delay spending for additional police officers and a host of other items until the city's financial picture becomes clearer.
The 11-4 vote gives the council a margin to override a veto threatened by Mayor James K. Hahn, who has taken to the airwaves in recent days along with Police Chief William J. Bratton to accuse the council of risking the city's public safety. It would take 10 council votes to override a veto.
Aggrieved council members said that they are committed to public safety but that the city cannot afford to commit $19 million for 320 new officers, as well as $4.2 million to reorganize the department and $8 million for new police cars. Their plan calls for deciding on the expenditures in four to six months and continuing to hire officers this summer and fall to replace those expected to retire or quit.
"Basically, the facts won over rhetoric today," said Councilman Nick Pacheco, chairman of the council's Budget and Finance Committee. "The budget the council adopted today is completely an olive branch to the mayor and he should run with it. We didn't say no; we said, 'Wait and see.' "
Monday's vote was the culmination of three weeks of sometimes contentious council hearings on Hahn's $5.1-billion budget proposal. During the 50 hours the budget committee reviewed the financial plan, much of the discussion concerned projections that the city could face a budget shortfall of $280 million by July 2005.
Hahn called the forecast preliminary and urged the council to approve his plan, but several council members, including key allies of the mayor, said he was not taking the city's financial situation seriously enough.
On Monday, Deputy Mayor Matt Middlebrook said it was too early to say what Hahn would do next. He said the mayor plans to meet with council members to urge an eleventh hour compromise to pay for the LAPD expansion. There is still time for such an agreement. The council won't take its final vote on the budget until Friday at the earliest.
Some council members said they hope for a compromise and urged Hahn to consider raising fees or finding other ways to generate revenue to pay for the new police officers. The mayor has threatened to veto any fee hikes beyond minor increases that he has proposed in trash rates, zoo admission and sewer charges.
